Sociology portals: Arts · Anthropology · Community · Culture · Economics · Education · Geography · Gender studies · Globalization · History · Human rights · Internet · Law · Philosophy · Social movements · Social sciences · Social Welfare and Social Work · Society
The Law Portal
Law is a system of rules, usually enforced through a set of institutions. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a primary social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus ticket to trading on derivatives markets. Property law defines rights and obligations related to the transfer and title of personal (often referred to as chattel) and real property. Trust law applies to assets held for investment and financial security, while tort law allows claims for compensation if a person's rights or property are harmed. If the harm is criminalised in a statute, criminal law offers means by which the state can prosecute the perpetrator. Constitutional law provides a framework for the creation of law, the protection of human rights and the election of political representatives. Administrative law is used to review the decisions of government agencies, while international law governs affairs between sovereign states in activities ranging from trade to environmental regulation or military action. Writing in 350 BC, the Greek philosopher Aristotle declared: "The rule of law is better than the rule of any individual."
Legal systems elaborate rights and responsibilities in a variety of ways. A general distinction can be made between civil law jurisdictions, which codify their laws, and common law systems, where judge made law is not consolidated. In some countries, religion informs the law. Law provides a rich source of scholarly inquiry, into legal history, philosophy, economic analysis or sociology. Law also raises important and complex issues concerning equality, fairness and justice. "In its majestic equality", said the author Anatole France in 1894, "the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread." In a typical democracy, the central institutions for interpreting and creating law are the three main branches of government, namely an impartial judiciary, a democratic legislature, and an accountable executive. To implement and enforce the law and provide services to the public, a government's bureaucracy, the military and police are vital. While all these organs of the state are creatures created and bound by law, an independent legal profession and a vibrant civil society inform and support their progress. (More…)
Selected article
The Constitution of May 3, 1791 was drafted between October 6, 1788, and May 3, 1791, when it was adopted as a "Government Act" by the Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch). The document was designed to redress political defects of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth; the system of "Golden Liberty" had conferred disproportionate rights on the nobility, and over time had corrupted politics. Its adoption was preceded by a period of agitation for, and gradual introduction of, reforms, beginning with the Convocation Sejm of 1764 and the election of Stanisław August Poniatowski as the Commonwealth's last king, and culminating in legislation adopted by the Great Sejm.
The constitution sought to supplant the prevailing anarchy, fostered by some of the country's magnates, with a more democratic constitutional monarchy. It introduced elements of political equality between townspeople and nobility and placed the peasants under the protection of the government, thus mitigating the worst abuses of serfdom. It banned pernicious parliamentary institutions such as the liberum veto, which had put the Sejm at the mercy of any single deputy who could choose, or be bribed by an interest or foreign power, to undo all the legislation that had been passed by that Sejm. (more...)
Selected biography
William Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett, QC PC (6 September 1883 – 10 February 1962) was a British barrister, judge, politician and preacher who served as the alternate British judge during the Nuremberg Trials. He received his education at Barrow-in-Furness Grammar School. He was a Methodist preacher and a draper before attending Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1907, to study theology, history and law. He was called to the Bar in 1913.
Birkett was made a King's Counsel in 1924. He became a criminal defence lawyer and acted as counsel in a number of famous cases including the second of the Brighton trunk murders. A member of the Liberal Party, he sat in Parliament for Nottingham East twice.
He was accepted appointment to the High Court of Justice in 1941. In 1945 he served as the alternate British judge at the Nuremberg trials, and he was made a Privy Counsellor in 1947. He joined the Court of Appeal of England and Wales in 1950 but retired in 1956 when he had served for long enough to draw a pension. From 1958 he served in the House of Lords, and his speech against a private bill in 1962 saw it defeated by 70 votes to 36, two days before he died on 10 February 1962. (more...)
Did you know...
- ... that other than the Second World War, there has never been a declaration of war by Canada?
- ... that in Young v. Facebook, Inc., Judge Jeremy Fogel found that Facebook was not a physical place for the purpose of the Americans with Disabilities Act, despite its having "posts" and "walls"?
- ... DYK3
- ... DYK4
- ... DYK5
- ... DYK6
- ... DYK7
- ... DYK8
Selected picture
Selected case
Eng Foong Ho v. Attorney-General is the name of two cases of the Singapore courts, a High Court decision delivered in 2008 and the 2009 judgment by the Court of Appeal. The main issue raised by the case was whether the Collector of Land Revenue had treated the plaintiffs (later appellants), who were devotees of the Jin Long Si Temple, unequally by compulsorily acquiring for public purposes the land on which the temple stood but not the lands of a Hindu mission and a Christian church nearby. It was alleged that the authorities had acted in violation of Article 12(1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore, which guarantees the rights to equality before the law and equal protection of the law.
The High Court held that the plaintiffs lacked locus standi to bring the action as they were not the temple's legal owners. In any case, as there was evidence that the authorities had rational reasons for treating the temple property differently from the property of the Mission and the Church, the High Court found that there had been no breach of Article 12(1). Furthermore, the Court determined that the plaintiffs were guilty of inordinate delay in bringing the action. (more...)
Selected statute
The hours of service (HOS) are regulations issued by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) governing the working hours of anyone operating a commercial motor vehicle (CMV) in the United States for the purpose of "interstate commerce"— moving commercial goods from one U.S. state to another. This includes truck drivers and bus drivers who operate CMVs for motor carriers (their employers). These rules limit the number of daily and weekly hours spent driving and working, and regulate the minimum amount of time drivers must spend resting between driving shifts. For intrastate commerce, the respective state's regulations apply.
The HOS's main purpose is to prevent accidents caused by driver fatigue. This is accomplished by limiting the number of driving hours per day, and the number of driving and working hours per week. Fatigue is also prevented by keeping drivers on a 21- to 24-hour schedule, maintaining a natural sleep/wake cycle (or circadian rhythm). Drivers are required to take a daily minimum period of rest, and are allowed longer "weekend" rest periods to combat cumulative fatigue effects that accrue on a weekly basis. (more...)
Legal news
- June 11: 16-year-old girl charged with attempted murder in Melbourne, Australia
- May 30: Non-parole period extended to 43 years for Australian rapist and murderer
- May 28: Western Australia police close in on murder suspect, arrest warrant issued
- May 21: Yingluck Shinawatra, former Thai prime minister, begins her trial in Bangkok over corruption allegations
- May 18: Nine dead after biker gang feud in Texas
- May 8: Teen accused of Anzac Day terror plot applies for bail
- May 8: Indiana Governor signs needle exchange program
- May 1: Two Australians executed in Indonesia over 2005 drug smuggling case
- April 30: Holocaust survivor publicly forgives 93-year-old Auschwitz guard during his trial
- April 22: Student kills teacher in Barcelona
Quality content
- Featured articles
- Accurate News and Information Act
- Act of Independence of Lithuania
- Afroyim v. Rusk
- Al-Kateb v Godwin
- Alaska Mental Health Enabling Act
- Alcohol laws of New Jersey
- Ashford v Thornton
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission v Baxter Healthcare Pty Ltd
- Hugh Beadle
- Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett
- Bricker Amendment
- William Calcraft
- Carucage
- Coinage Act of 1873
- Constitution of Belarus
- Court of Chancery
- CSI effect
- Harold Davidson
- Treaty of Devol
- Dietrich v The Queen
- Eastbourne manslaughter
- Ex parte Crow Dog
- Execution by elephant
- Freedom for the Thought That We Hate
- Fuck (film)
- Fuck: Word Taboo and Protecting Our First Amendment Liberties
- Robert Garran
- William Garrow
- Gray's Inn
- Debora Green
- Learned Hand
- Hanged, drawn and quartered
- Horse Protection Act of 1970
- Hours of service
- Jena Six
- Mathew Charles Lamb
- LaRouche criminal trials
- Law school of Beirut
- Malkin Tower
- Marshalsea
- Menominee Tribe v. United States
- Sherman Minton
- Ordinances of 1311
- Pendle witches
- Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart
- Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
- Regulamentul Organic
- Report of 1800
- Royal assent
- Royal baccarat scandal
- Same-sex marriage in Spain
- Samlesbury witches
- Saxbe fix
- Antonin Scalia
- Scottish Parliament
- Sega v. Accolade
- Assata Shakur
- Elliott Fitch Shepard
- Smith Act trials of Communist Party leaders
- Melford Stevenson
- Tichborne case
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- United States v. Kagama
- United States v. Lara
- United States v. Progressive, Inc.
- United States v. Washington
- United States v. Wong Kim Ark
- Voting Rights Act of 1965
- Washington v. Texas
- Featured lists
- Chief Justice of the Common Pleas
- List of computer criminals
- List of politicians, lawyers, and civil servants educated at Jesus College, Oxford
- List of Attorneys General of West Virginia
- List of High Courts of India
- List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada
- List of United States Supreme Court Justices by time in office
- List of county court venues in England and Wales
- List of former county courts in Wales
- Master of the Rolls
- Sakharov Prize
- Good articles
For a list of good articles on legal topics, see here.
Categories
WikiProjects
- WikiProject Law
- WikiProject Australian law
- WikiProject Canadian law
- Canon law Task Force
- WikiProject Correction and Detention Facilities
- WikiProject Crime and Criminal Biography
- WikiProject FBI
- WikiProject Human rights
- WikiProject International law
- WikiProject Law Enforcement
- WikiProject Taxation
- WikiProject U.S. Supreme Court cases
What are WikiProjects?
Things you can do
- Help out with the WikiProject Law's list of tasks
- Expand a stub article about law
- Write a new article about a legal topic, case or person – see the list of requested law articles
Related portals
Associated Wikimedia
- What are portals?
- List of portals
- Featured portals